I recently took in 2 cats that were homeless. The 2 had come from the same place but never got along. I had 3 cats already. The new ones have been in my house for almost 2 months but they still don't get along. The new one usually stay apart. One at one end of the house and the other at the other end. But when my other 3 get near them they will growl, hiss and I've seen/heard them attack. HELP what do I do? I have read the posts about what to do when introducing new cats to the other family members but this is after the fact. Do I go back to square one and separate the news ones into separate rooms and keep them all away from the cats I already had? If I do that what do I do if one scratches on the door to get out?
I will go back to the beginning of this story. The beginning of October I learned that 1 of my kitties had cancer. He was only 14, had a wife and 2 adopted kids. We went through a couple of different treatments but nothing worked. He passed away on November 29th. One week before he died I found out that another cat who was 19 had what I was told a bladder infection. We put him on meds and I thought he was going to get better, but he didn't. Instead he went down hill and on the day he passed away on Dec 21st I found out that he, too, had cancer. At the end of that week I found out about these other 2 kitties that had become homeless. Their person had been evicted from his home and unable to take them with him so he left them there. He did come by to check on them a few times and put out food. It was getting really cold here about that time and rainy. I did not want any new cats. I had just lost 2 and they were a close knit family. but I couldn't see leaving those other cats in that situation so with the help of a friend I went to their area and caught them and brought them home. A week later I went on a weekend trip out of town leaving them in the care of a friend who pet/house sits for me. Because I did that I thought that I should bring the cats into contact with each other earlier than I probably should have. So now I am still having problems with them all getting on. I don't care if they are not the best of friends. I just don't want them physically attacking each other. I need HELP!
I have posted a part of this story in other places and I'm not trying to duplicate this and post continually. I just found this forum and thought it might be good to put the whole story out there and hopefully someone would see it and understand my question. I really appreciate those that have already suggested reading material. That was really thoughtful. I did read all suggestions but my main question is do I start from scratch separating everyone and working with scent and sight getting them used to each other from the beginning as if they had never met. Or where do I start from here? any help is very appreciated. Oh one thing I forgot to mention earlier is that they are older cats. My original 3 are 8, 9 and 11. The new ones we estimated with the help of our vet to be 4 and 8. So I'm not dealing with kittens but older cats that had been left outside to fend for themselves.
Thank you.
I will go back to the beginning of this story. The beginning of October I learned that 1 of my kitties had cancer. He was only 14, had a wife and 2 adopted kids. We went through a couple of different treatments but nothing worked. He passed away on November 29th. One week before he died I found out that another cat who was 19 had what I was told a bladder infection. We put him on meds and I thought he was going to get better, but he didn't. Instead he went down hill and on the day he passed away on Dec 21st I found out that he, too, had cancer. At the end of that week I found out about these other 2 kitties that had become homeless. Their person had been evicted from his home and unable to take them with him so he left them there. He did come by to check on them a few times and put out food. It was getting really cold here about that time and rainy. I did not want any new cats. I had just lost 2 and they were a close knit family. but I couldn't see leaving those other cats in that situation so with the help of a friend I went to their area and caught them and brought them home. A week later I went on a weekend trip out of town leaving them in the care of a friend who pet/house sits for me. Because I did that I thought that I should bring the cats into contact with each other earlier than I probably should have. So now I am still having problems with them all getting on. I don't care if they are not the best of friends. I just don't want them physically attacking each other. I need HELP!
I have posted a part of this story in other places and I'm not trying to duplicate this and post continually. I just found this forum and thought it might be good to put the whole story out there and hopefully someone would see it and understand my question. I really appreciate those that have already suggested reading material. That was really thoughtful. I did read all suggestions but my main question is do I start from scratch separating everyone and working with scent and sight getting them used to each other from the beginning as if they had never met. Or where do I start from here? any help is very appreciated. Oh one thing I forgot to mention earlier is that they are older cats. My original 3 are 8, 9 and 11. The new ones we estimated with the help of our vet to be 4 and 8. So I'm not dealing with kittens but older cats that had been left outside to fend for themselves.
Thank you.